THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

PRESENTED  BY 

PROF.  CHARLES  A.  KOFOID  AND 
MRS.  PRUDENCE  W.  KOFOID 


ABORIGINAL 
FISHING   STATIONS 

ON  THE  COAST  OF 
THE  MIDDLE  ATLANTIC  STATES 


BY 


FRANCIS  JORDAN,  JR. 

Member  of  the  American  Philosophical  Society 

Vice-President  of  the 
Numismatic  and  Antiquarian  Society  of  Philadelphia,  Etc. 


PHILADELPHIA 
1906 


PRESS  OF 

THE  NEW  ERA  PRINTINS  COMPANY, 
LANCASTER,  PA. 


L. 


ABORIGINAL  FISHING  STATIONS  ON 

THE  COAST  OF  THE  MIDDLE 

ATLANTIC    STATES. 

THEIR  CHARACTERISTICS. 

N  that  part  of  the  Atlantic  seaboard 
lying  directly  east  of  the  Alleghanies, 
which  embraces  the  Middle  Atlantic 
States,  the  remains  of  the  aboriginal 
American  have  no  features  that  arrest  the  atten 
tion  of  the  superficial  observer,  and  hence  their 
identification  requires  some  little  knowledge  of 
archaeological  field  work.  Here  there  are  no  vast 
sepulchral  mounds  nor  other  structures  of  a  pre 
historic  origin,  such  as  astonish  the  beholder  in  the 
valley  of  the  Mississippi.  As  we  approach  the 
walls  of  the  Alleghanies  from  the  west  those  an 
cient  monuments  of  a  mysterious  and  extinct  civi 
lization  gradually  fade  away,  and  having  crossed 
that  barrier  abruptly  disappear;  a  fact  which  must 
convey  a  significant  meaning  to  the  student  of 
American  ethnology. 

There  are,  of  course,  Indian  graves  in  the  dis 
trict  we  are  considering,  and  they  contain  the  usual 
mortuary  objects,  but  they  rarely  have  any  visible 
existence.1  These  unmarked  tombs  are  about  the 


mortuary  objects   from   a   grave   on   the   Atlantic  slope 
have  a  direct  bearing  on  its  antiquity.     If  articles  of  European 

3 


4  Aboriginal  Fishing  Stations. 

depth  of  a  modern  plough-share,  generally  the 
medium  of  their  discovery,  and  one  very  apt  to 
destroy  or  mutilate  the  contents. 

As  the  aborigine  of  our  eastern  coast,  unlike 
his  brother  of  Continental  Europe,  obviously  lived 
an  arborial  life,  cave  dwellings  are  almost  unknown 
whence  we  might  hope  to  find  traces  of  his  prim 
itive  life.  If  he  sought  the  shelter  of  a  cave,  it 
was  a  contingency,  not  a  custom ;  he  did  not  adopt 
it  as  a  permanent  habitation.  It  is  true  caves  have 
occasionally  been  found  in  the  Middle  States  con 
taining  implements  and  bones,  but  in  their  general 
character  the  objects  suggest  a  secret  work  shop 
or  storage  house  rather  than  a  domicile.2 

manufacture  are  found  associated  with  those  of  native  origin, 
such  as  trinkets  of  brass  and  glass  and  cooking  utensils  and 
weapons  of  iron — which  the  Indians  obtained  by  barter  from 
the  whites — the  age  of  the  grave  must  be  limited  to  the  early 
colonial  period.  Dissociated  from  the  former  it  may  exceed  five 
hundred  or  a  thousand  years. 

2  Of  these  perhaps  the  most  important  was  found  in  1878  by 
Professor  S.  S.  Haldeman  (Samuel  Stehman  Haldeman,  natur 
alist,  born  in  Locust  Grove,  Pa.,  August  12,  1812;  died  September 
10,  1903)  at  the  base  of  a  cliff  w-ashed  by  the  Susquehanna  River, 
at  Chickies,  Pa.  It  could  not  be  approached  from  the  land  side, 
and  discovery  from  the  water  was  effectually  concealed  by 
shrubbery.  It  was  a  secure  and  almost  impregnable  hiding 
place.  Professor  Haldeman  stated  that  it  had  served  as  a  re 
treat  and  lapidary's  shop  for  not  less  than  two  thousand  years, 
and  it  was  also  clear  that  it  had  not  been  occupied  within  two 
hundred  years.  It  contained  one  hundred  and  fifty  stone  im 
plements,  consisting  of  arrow-heads,  tomahawks  and  flaking- 
hammers,  innumerable  stone  chippings  and  the  bones  of  various 
animals.  Many  of  the  articles  were  found  at  a  depth  of  thirty 


Aboriginal  Fishing  Stations.  5 

Although  there  are  no  great  tumuli  on  the  At 
lantic  Coast,  it  does  not  follow  that  this  part  of  the 
United  States  is  destitute  of  aboriginal  remains. 
On  the  contrary,  as  in  its  prehistoric  village  sites, 
in  which  environment  plays  an  important  part, 
the  Middle  States  possess  archaeological  features 
that,  if  they  do  not  equal,  exceed  in  variety  of 

inches,  underlying  a  rich  black  mold.  Human  bones  were 
absent. 

See  a  paper  entitled  "  Contents  of  a  Rock  Retreat,"  read  before 
the  American  Philosophical  Society,  June  21,  1878,  published  in 
its  proceedings. 

The  Rt.  Rev.  John  Etwein,  a  Moravian  missionary,  who 
labored  among  the  Indians  in  colonial  days,  encountered  cave 
tombs  in  his  journeys  over  the  mountains  in  Pennsylvania,  although 
he  made  no  examination  of  their  contents.  His  interesting  daily 
journal,  written  in  German,  has  recently  been  found  in  the 
archives  of  the  Moravian  Church  at  Bethlehem,  Pa.,  in  which, 
under  date  of  April,  1768,  he  says:  "In  descending  the  Wyoming 
Mountain  into  the  Valley  my  Indian  guide  pointed  out  a  pile  of 
stones  which  he  said  indicated  the  number  of  Indians  who  had 
climbed  that  Mountain,  it  being  the  custom  for  each  one  to  add 
a  stone  to  the  heap  in  passing  over  the  trail.  The  Shawnees 
have  all  left  the  Wyoming  and  Susquehanna;  the  only  traces 
of  them  are  their  places  of  burial  in  crevices  and  caves  in  the 
rocks  at  whose  entrance  stand  large  painted  stones." 

It  was  Etwein  who  in  1768  first  brought  to  public  notice 
the  existence  of  the  sepulchral  mounds  in  the  Mississippi  Valley. 
These  amazing  structures  which  attracted  his  attention  on  the 
Muskingum  and  Ohio  rivers  were  so  completely  at  variance  with 
the  capabilities  of  the  present  race  of  Indians  as  he  knew  them, 
that  he  unhesitatingly  expressed  it  as  his  belief  that  they  were 
the  creation  of  a  remote  and  far  more  enlightened  people. 

Many  years  after  he  had  recorded  his  observations  an  expe 
dition  under  the  auspices  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution  made  a 
survey  of  the  ground  plan  of  the  largest  mounds  and  a  study  of 


6  Aboriginal  Fishing  Stations. 

interest  the  antiquities  of  the  Mississippi  Valley. 
The  former  are  better  preserved  on  or  near  the 
sea,  and  while  they  may  not  inspire  the  beholder 
with  awe  or  wonder,  almost  as  much  may  be  learned 
from  them  of  aboriginal  culture  as  from  the  im 
posing  relics  of  the  mound  builders. 

One  may  expect  to  find  these  deserted  fishing 
stations,  for  such  they  really  were,  on  the  shores 
of  all  the  bays  and  inlets  that  indent  the  low  sandy 
coast-line  of  New  Jersey,  Delaware  and  Maryland, 
where  fish  and  mollusks  of  unsurpassed  quality 
were  abundant. 

In  the  following  pages  I  shall  endeavor  to  de 
scribe  their  prominent  characteristics — where  the 
remains  have  survived  the  leveling  process  of  the 

their  contents,  which  fully  warranted  this  belief.  Etwein  and  his 
coadjutors,  among  them  the  Revs.  John  Heckewelder  and  David 
Zeisberger,  penetrated  the  wilderness  far  in  advance  of  the 
earliest  white  settlement,  and  to  these  zealous  and  self-denying 
men  we  are  indebted  for  the  most  authentic  accounts,  written 
in  the  simple  but  expressive  language  of  the  Moravian  missionary, 
of  the  life  and  character  of  the  Indians  of  the  eastern  coast  of 
the  United  States  prior  to  the  American  Revolution. 

Heckewelder's  contributions  to  our  knowledge  of  the  aboriginal 
American  are  particularly  valuable  as  they  include  a  vocabulary 
of  the  principal  words  and  phrases  of  the  Delaware  tongue, 
together  with  the  names  of  the  rivers,  lakes  and  mountains  of 
New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Maryland  and  Virginia.  A  daughter 
of  Heckewelder,  who  married  a  Moravian  missionary  by  the 
name  of  Holland,  was  the  first  female  white  child  born  in  the 
State  of  Ohio,  and  incredible  as  it  may  sound  in  the  year  1905, 
in  which  I  write,  I  had  the  pleasure  of  meeting  her  in  her 
declining  years. 


Aboriginal  Fishing  Stations.  7 

elements  and  the  modern  ploughman — from  which 
we  are  permitted  to  learn  something  of  the  domes 
tic  economy  of  these  ancient  fishermen  and  their 
means  of  subsistence. 

Heaps  of  discarded  shells  and  kitchen  refuse, 
in  some  instances  of  extraordinary  size,  indicate 
their  locality.  I  venture  to  say  that  nowhere  else 
on  our  eastern  coast  are  there  so  many  unmistak 
able  evidences  of  a  large  aboriginal  population. 
Where  the  settlements  were  not  permanent,  as 
were  those  on  the  Chesapeake  and  upper  Delaware 
Bay,  they  were  abandoned  in  winter  and  revisited 
with  every  recurring  autumn. 

In  selecting  a  site  for  this  purpose  adaptability 
was  the  first  consideration.  An  elevation  safe  from 
inundating  tides,  a  water  course  which  gave  easy 
communication  with  the  open  bay  or  sea,  and  prox 
imity  to  fresh  water  and  timber  were  the  essentials. 
Here  the  natives  sought  the  invigorating  air  of  the 
sea  and  its  attractive  fisheries  with  an  avidity 
which  v/e  of  the  present  day  have  only  followed. 
Those  who  composed  these  annual  excursions  were 
principally  the  nearby  tribes,  but  that  others  from 
the  interior  participated,  is  shown  by  the  discovery 
on  our  eastern  coast  of  objects  made  from  metal 
and  bone  that  have  an  exclusive  origin  west  of  the 
Alleghanies;  silent  witnesses  of  an  intercourse  be 
tween  widely  separated  tribal  communities. 

Primarily  the  object  of  these  visits  to  the  sea,- 
coast  was  to  obtain  a  supply  of  fish  and  mollusks, 


8  Aboriginal  Fishing  Stations. 

which  were  dried  for  winter  consumption;  an 
aboriginal  industry  of  the  first  importance.  As  a 
fisherman  the  Indian  was  an  expert,  as  shown  by 
his  ingeniously  made  hooks  and  sinkers  to  be  found 
on  the  seashore  and  on  the  banks  of  every  inland 
water  course. 

As  to  the  composition  of  the  debris  of  a  fishing 
station,  it  is  the  same  the  world  over,  differing  only 
in  animal  remains  and  some  forms  of  implements. 
On  the  Middle  Atlantic  coast  oyster,  clam  and 
mussel  shells  predominate  in  the  order  of  their 
mention,  intermingled  with  charcoal  and  broken 
pottery,  and  supplemented  by  vegetable  and  ani 
mal  matter,  such  as  the  seeds  of  small  fruits,  crab 
shells,  animal  and  fish  bones.  Smoke-discolored, 
cracked  and  calcined  boulders  are  also  an  impor 
tant  constituent,  are  easily  recognized  as  hearth 
stones,  and  although  rude  and  shapeless,  their  as 
sociation  with  the  domestic  life  of  the  Indian  gives 
them  a  distinct  interest. 

Large  flat  stone  platters,  irregular  in  shape, 
varying  from  six  to  twelve  inches  in  length  and 
two  inches  in  depth,  with  an  artificially  worked 
concave  surface,  are  frequently  met  with  among 
the  debris  and  are  all  more  or  less  fractured. 
Found  among  the  shells,  they  tell  their  own  story, 
as  it  was  on  these  stones  that  the  shells  of  the  mol- 
lusks  were  removed  with  the  aid  of  hammer-stones, 
the  rudest  implement  known  to  the  stone  age. 
These  latter  were  selected  from  ordinary  cobbles 


Aboriginal  Fishing  Stations.  9 

just  large  enough  to  be  firmly  held  in  the  hand. 
Finger  pits  occur  on  one  and  occasionally  on  both 
of  their  flat  sides,  and  their  battered  and  abrazed 
condition  shows  the  part  they  performed  in  the 
operation  of  shucking. 

In  a  word,  the  objects  found  among  the  dis 
carded  shell-mounds  are  such  as  one  would  expect 
to  find  in  any  modern  rubbish  heap,  broken  and 
valueless.  An  unbroken  implement  or  ornament, 
or  what  is  of  a  far  greater  value,  a  perfect  spec 
imen  of  pottery,  is  rarely  if  ever  met  with.  In 
my  wanderings  along  the  Atlantic  Coast  I  have 
examined  many  aboriginal  shell-mounds,  but,  save 
pitted  hammer-stones,  I  have  found  few  perfect 
articles  of  stone,  and  as  to  pottery,  although  frag 
ments  are  abundant  wherever  a  camp  site  exists,  I 
recall  but  one  shred  large  enough  to  accurately 
determine  the  size  of  the  vessel  of  which  it  was 
a  part. 

In  some  respects  the  composition  of  a  shell-heap 
is  as  important  to  the  naturalist  as  to  the  archaeol 
ogist;  for  example,  when  the  bones  of  an  extinct 
bird  or  mammal,  or  one  that  has  ceased  to  be  in 
digenous,  are  found  among  the  shells,  and  these, 
together  with  a  study  of  the  layers  or  strata  of 
the  mound,  if  its  depth  will  permit,  enable  us  to 
reach  some  rather  vague  conclusion  as  to  its  an 
tiquity.  As  to  the  latter,  however,  any  absolute 
determination  is  impossible,  and  yet  it  is  but  nat 
ural  to  regard  some  at  least  of  the  deposits  as  the 
accumulations  of  centuries. 


io  Aboriginal  Fishing  Stations. 

Not  infrequently  human  bones  have  been  dis 
covered,  and  in  view  of  their  association  with  the 
embers  and  kitchen  refuse  of  a  primitive  people, 
naturally  suggest  cannibalism.  Happily  for  the 
fair  fame  of  the  North  American  Indian,  both  his 
tory  and  tradition  are  silent  as  to  this  practice,  and 
no  material  evidence  exists  nor  is  likely  to  be  found 
at  this  date.  There  may  have  been  isolated  cases 
of  cannibalism,  but  it  certainly  never  existed  as  a 
custom.1 

1  Burial  in  a  shell-mound  was  occasionally  adopted,  and  as 
direct  contact  with  the  shells  promoted  disintegration,  may  have 
been  given  the  unknown  dead.  Among  others,  the  eminent  nat 
uralist,  Dr.  Joseph  Leidy,  mentions  having  found  human  bones 
in  a  shell-head  at  Lewes,  Delaware,  in  1874,  which  he  distinctly 
says  were  not  the  remains  of  a  cannibalistic  feast. 

It  may  be  well  to  add  that  in  the  summer  of  1901  Mr.  Walter 
Hough,  of  the  National  Museum  at  Washington,  D.  C.,  reported 
the  discovery  of  human  bones  among  the  remains  of  an  ancient 
pueblo  adjoining  the  famous  petrified  forest  of  Arizona,  which 
he  claims  indicated  cannibalism.  Although  I  am  not  prepared 
to  accept  his  conclusions  as  final,  I  give  them  in  his  own  words 
without  further  comment:  "A  tragedy  of  long  ago  came  to  light 
during  excavations  around  this  village.  .  .  .  Among  other  orderly 
burials  was  uncovered  a  heap  of  broken  human  bones.  It  was 
evident  that  the  shattered  bones  had  been  clean  when  they  were 
placed  in  the  ground,  and  some  fragments  showed  scorching  by 
fire.  The  marks  of  the  implements  used  in  cracking  the  bones 
were  still  traceable.  Without  doubt  this  ossuary  is  the  record 
of  a  cannibalistic  feast,  and  its  discovery  is  interesting  to  science 
as  being  the  first  material  proof  of  cannibalism  among  our  North 
American  Indians." 


Aboriginal  Fishing  Stations.  1 1 

FISHING  STATIONS  ON  THE  NEW  JERSEY  COAST. 

Pile  Dwellings. 

The  environment  of  a  shell-mound  must  also 
be  accounted  for,  and  in  one  instance  to  which  I 
am  about  to  draw  your  attention  indicated  a  phase 
of  aboriginal  domestic  life  hitherto  unrevealed. 
I  refer  to  the  custom  of  erecting  huts  on  shallow 
bays  and  inlets  upon  piling,  known  as  pile  dwell 
ings — perhaps  man's  earliest  attempt  to  build  a 
domicile  for  defence.  The  remains  of  pile  dwell 
ings  have  been  found  in  England,  Ireland  and  on 
the  continent  of  Europe  and  are  classified  with  the 
bronze  age;  and  no  one  acquainted  with  the  sub 
ject  would  be  surprised  at  their  discovery  on  the 
eastern  coast  of  the  United  States,  as  in  1499 
Alonza  de  Ojeda,  who  had  accompanied  Columbus 
on  his  first  expedition  to  the  new  world,  found 
them  in  the  bay  of  Venezuela.  Twenty  huts  com 
posed  this  settlement,  to  which  he  gave  the  sug 
gestive  name  of  "  Venezuela,"  or  "  Little  Venice." 
Similar  structures  were  also  found  on  the  Gulf  of 
Maracaibo  and  by  the  early  travelers  on  the  coast 
of  Mexico,  and  they  are  still  in  use  by  the  half- 
civilized  Indians  on  the  Gulf  of  Mexico. 

With  the  hope  of  confirming  a  long  entertained 
belief  that  remains  of  this  character  might  be  found 
anywhere  south  of  Sandy  Hook,  I  visited  many 
points  on  the  New  Jersey  coast  where  the  shallow 
and  protected  water-ways  invited  their  construe- 


12  Aboriginal  Fishing  Stations. 

tion.  While  thus  engaged  in  the  autumn  of  1888 
my  attention  was  drawn  to  a  large  curiously  sit 
uated  shell-mound  near  Tuckerton.  Although  my 
opportunities  for  a  complete  examination  were 
then  unfavorable,  I  ventured  to  express  the  opinion 
that  its  position,  isolation  and  significant  shape 
suggested  the  refuse  of  a  group  of  huts  built  over 
the  water.  When  I  again  visited  Tuckerton  in 
1892  under  conditions  that  permitted  a  more  care 
ful  study  of  the  mound  and  its  surroundings,  my 
conclusions  seemed  fully  verified,  and  I  am  glad  to 
state  were  corroborated  by  investigations  subse 
quently  conducted  by  the  late  Frank  Hamilton 
Gushing.1 

This  remarkable  deposit  stands  about  a  mile 
from  the  mainland  on  Egg  Harbor  Bay,  and  as 
far  as  the  eye  can  see  is  the  one  solitary  object  on 
this  apparently  illimitable  salt  meadow.  It  is  im 
practicable  to  reach  the  mound  except  in  midsum 
mer  when  the  numerous  rivulets  which  intersect  the 
marsh  are  dry,  and  then  only  by  sailing  down  Tuck 
erton  Creek  to  a  point  nearest  the  mound  and  thence 
across  the  intervening  marsh  on  foot.  No  single 
aboriginal  shell-heap  on  the  coast  of  the  North 
Atlantic  States  equals  it  in  size  or  is  similarly  sit 
uated;  and  as  its  position  is  inconsistent  with  the 
well  known  custom  of  the  American  Indian  not  to 

1  Frank  Hamilton  Gushing,  author  and  ethnologist,  born  at 
Northeast,  Pa.,  July  22,  1857.  Connected  with  the  Powell  expe 
dition  to  Mexico  in  1879.  Conducted  expeditions  in  the  interests 
of  archaeology  among  the  Zuni  Indians  and  in  Florida.  Died  in 
Washington,  D.  C.,  April  10,  1900. 


Aboriginal  Fishing  Stations.  13 

select  a  village  site  where  destruction  from  tidal 
influences  was  inevitable,  it  was  natural  to  inquire 
concerning  its  surroundings  during  the  formative 
period. 

Instead  of  a  shallow  layer  of  shells  distributed 
over  a  considerable  area,  here  is  a  large  single 
mound  on  an  exposed  marsh,  and  if  the  latter 
were  once  an  integral  part  of  the  bay,  of  which 
there  is  no  reasonable  doubt,  the  mound  during  its 
formation  was  surrounded  by  water. 

In  this  connection  it  may  be  proper  to  mention 
that  after  my  first  inspection  I  made  a  brief  report 
of  my  observations  to  the  Numismatic  and  Anti 
quarian  Society  of  Philadelphia  when  was  present 
its  late  president,  the  eminent  Americanist,  Dr. 
Daniel  Garrison  Brinton.1  Following  the  usual 
discussion,  Dr.  Brinton  deemed  it  prudent  to  re 
mind  the  Society  that,  the  subsidence  of  the  land 
was  an  important  factor  in  determining  the  char 
acter  of  aboriginal  remains,  particularly  when  they 
were  found  on  the  coast  of  the  Middle  States,  and 
unless  this  was  taken  into  account,  features  might 
be  credited  to  them  not  rightfully  their  own.  For 
this  reason  it  was  suggested  that  the  conclusions  of 
the  observer,  when  they  related  to  localities  affected 

1  Daniel  Garrison  Brinton,  surgeon  and  archaeologist,  born  at 
Thornbury,  Pa.,  May  13,  1837,  died  July  31,  1899.  Professor  of 
American  linguistics  and  archaeology,  University  of  Pennsyl 
vania.  His  writings  include  "  Notes  on  the  Floridian  Peninsula," 
"  American  Hero  Myths,"  "  Aboriginal  American  Anthology," 
"  Primer  of  Mayan  Hieroglyphics,"  "  Religion  of  Primitive 
People,"  etc. 


14  Aboriginal  Fishing  Stations. 

by  physical  changes,  should  be  accepted  only  after 
the  most  thorough  investigation. 

With  this  caution  constantly  kept  in  view,  the 
writer  on  his  second  visit  gave  this  aspect  of  the 
subject,  special  consideration,  but  without  discov 
ering  the  slightest  reason  for  changing  his  pre 
viously  expressed  convictions.  Indeed,  it  was 
learned  from  the  earliest  recorded  data  relating  to 
the  effect  of  ocean  currents  on  the  coast  line  of 
New  Jersey,  that  while  that  part  north  of  the  sum 
mer  resort  of  Bay  Head  had  suffered  from  the  en 
croachments  of  the  sea,  south  of  that  point,  which 
takes  in  Egg  Harbor  Bay,  there  had  been  no  sub 
sidence  of  the  land,  but  on  the  contrary,  a  gradual 
recession  of  the  sea  has  been  in  progress  for  cen 
turies;  conditions  that  in  large  measure  permit  us 
to  conclude  that  within  eight  hundred  or  a  thou 
sand  years  the  marsh  was  covered  with  a  shallow 
depth  of  water. 

Where  the  marsh  joins  the  mainland  the  divid 
ing  line  is  accentuated  by  a  sharp  rise  of  about 
twenty-five  feet,  and  on  the  crest  of  this  slope,  be 
yond  the  reach  of  abnormal  tides,  a  number  of  In 
dian  graves  were  uncovered,  coincident  with  my 
own  investigations,  exposing  the  bones  of  ten  adults 
of  both  sexes  and  several  children.1  It  was  the 

1  One  of  the  skeletons  measured  over  seven  feet  and  was  that  of 
a  veritable  giant.  It  was  plain  to  be  seen  that  death  was  caused 
by  a  fracture  of  the  skull  produced  by  some  blunt  weapon.  The 
blood  which  had  congealed  along  the  track  of  the  wound  was 
surprisingly  brilliant  notwithstanding  the  lapse  of  centuries. 


PLATE  III.     HUMAN  BONES  FROM  INDIAN  GRAVES  ON  MAINLAND,  OPPOSITE 
INDIAN   MOUND,  TUCKERTON,  NEW  JERSEY. 


Aboriginal  Fishing  Stations.  15 

characteristic  burial  place  of  the  prehistoric  Amer 
ican  Indian  of  our  eastern  coast,  with  nothing  to 
distinguish  it  from  the  common  earth.  No  violent 
stretch  of  the  imagination  is  required  to  connect 
these  people  when  in  life  with  the  village  on  the 
marsh  at  some  period  in  its  history,  thus  sustaining 
the  belief  that  the  marsh  was  once  completely  sub 
merged  and  hence  not  a  place  for  proper  sepulture. 

As  the  mound  appears  to-day,  after  suffering 
from  the  spoliation  of  the  lime  burner  and  the  ele 
ments,  its  proportions  are  still  imposing,  as  by 
actual  measurement  it  is  over  one  hundred  feet 
long,  rising  abruptly  from  a  base  fifteen  to  twenty- 
five  feet  across  to  a  mean  height  of  twelve  feet 
above  the  present  level  of  the  marsh.  The  actual 
foundation  is  several  feet  below  the  surface,  the 
result  of  accretions,  which  in  the  course  of  cen 
turies  naturally  follow  the  subsidence  of  the  sea. 

From  the  nearest  point  on  the  mainland  its  ap 
pearance  is  striking,  although  its  artificial  charac 
ter  is  not  revealed,  owing  to  a  thick  verdure  which 
covers  the  entire  surface,  until  the  observer  is 
actually  treading  among  the  shells.  A  remarkable 
bunch  of  six  venerable  weather-beaten  cedars  crowns 
the  summit  and  increases  the  resemblance  to  a  nat 
ural  formation,  as  well  as  adds  to  its  prominence. 
Three  at  least  of  the  trees,  as  shown  by  their  cor 
tical  rings,  have  faced  the  storms  of  over  two 
centuries,  having  attained  their  growth  long^  after 
the  settlement  had  been  abandoned;  and  if  we 


1 6  Aboriginal.  Fishing  Stations. 

further  add  to  this  evidence  the  years  that  were 
necessary  to  the  gradual  accumulation  of  this  vast 
pile  of  discarded  shells,  we  can  form  some  ade 
quate  conception  of  its  age. 

Its  authorship,  however,  is  enveloped  in  obscur 
ity,  as  when  Tuckerton  was  founded  in  1764  the 
Indians  had  retreated  from  the  coast.  Those  who 
lingered  in  the  vicinity  through  infirmity  or  incli 
nation  did  not  regard  the  mound  as  the  work 
of  their  progenitors,  but  of  a  race  much  older  than 
their  own,  of  whom  they  had  no  knowledge,  even 
of  a  legendary  character.  In  our  day  it  has  served 
a  useful  purpose  as  a  land  mark  for  coasting  ves 
sels,  as  well  as  a  station  whence  the  United  States 
Coast  Survey  made  their  local  triangulations. 

After  carefully  considering  the  evidence  bearing 
upon  its  origin,  its  environment,  remarkable  size 
and  irregular  shape,  added  to  the  incontrovertible 
fact  that  its  formation  must  necessarily  have  been 
made  from  an  elevation,  the  conclusion  seems  ob 
vious  that  the  shells  represent  the  refuse  heap  of 
a  group  of  pile  dwellings,  and  I  believe  the  only 
instance  of  the  kind  on  the  eastern  coast  of  the 
United  States  thus  far  brought  to  the  notice  of  the 
scientific  world. 

There  is  other  testimony  which  must  also  im 
press  the  observer  as  favoring  this  contention,  and 
that  is  the  presence  of  an  unusually  small  propor 
tion  of  cinders.  If  we  admit  the  belief  that  the 
latter,  together  with  the  shells,  were  swept  into 


Aboriginal  Fishing  Stations.  17 

the  bay  from  the  threshold  of  huts  erected  over 
the  water,  we  can  readily  understand  that  the  shells 
would  sink  and  the  charcoal  and  light  material 
would  be  carried  away  by  wind  and  tide. 

Plate  I.  gives  a  distant  view  of  the  center  of  the 
Tuckerton  mound,  taking  in  the  group  of  cedars. 
The  engraving  would  seem  to  indicate  a  long 
straight  heap  of  shells,  whereas  the  line  is  crescent 
shaped  and  irregular. 

Plate  II.  gives  a  nearer  view  of  a  section  of  the 
mound  where  the  shells  are  exposed,  conveys  an 
impression  of  its  elevation,  the  magnitude  of  the 
deposit  and  the  size  of  the  trees  that  have  taken 
root  upon  its  summit. 

Tuckerton  is  one  of  the  oldest  towns  in  the 
State.  It  was  here  for  almost  a  century  that  pas 
sengers  embarked  for  Long  Beach,  a  resort  for 
sportsmen  across  the  bay  on  Ten-Mile  Beach. 
How  it  came  about  that  a  settlement  was  located 
at  Tuckerton  is  inexplicable  in  view  of  its  complete 
isolation.  Sixty  miles  of  an  almost  impenetrable 
pine  forest  intervened  between  the  town  and  civi 
lization.  If  the  first  settlers  followed  an  Indian 
trail  to  its  destination,  which  is  more  than  likely, 
history  does  not  mention  it.  That  it  was  a  favorite 
fishing  station  in  prehistoric  times  there  is  abun 
dant  proof  if  one  is  inclined  to  look  for  it  along 
the  banks  of  Tuckerton  Creek  and  on  the  high 
fast  land  bordering  Egg  Harbor  Bay,  where  the 
Indian  built  his  hut. 


1 8  Aboriginal.  Fishing  Stations. 

Within  the  borough  precincts  of  the  town,  for 
example,  there  is  a  shady  spot  of  some  five  acres, 
now  dedicated  to  picnics  and  the  like,  known  as 
Flax  Island,  once  the  site  of  an  Indian  village  of 
which  no  trace  remains  save  the  fast  disappearing 
debris  of  the  deserted  hearths.  But  this  and  many 
other  encampments  in  the  neighborhood  were  un 
questionably  occupied  centuries  after  the  great 
mound  on  the  marsh  had  been  abandoned. 

There  are  other  remains  of  villages  on  the  New 
Jersey  coast  at  Keyport,  Atlantic  City,  Summers' 
Point,  Cape  May  Courthouse  and  Cape  May,  but 
they  have  no  archaeologcal  significance  apart  from 
the  usual  deposit  of  shells,  which  in  no  instance  is 
beyond  the  ordinary,  with  the  exception  of  that  at 
Keyport,  which  Dr.  Charles  Rau  describes  in  his 
exhaustive  work  on  "  Pre-Historic  Fishing  in  Eu 
rope  and  America,"  issued  in  1885  by  the  Smiths 
onian  Institution  at  Washington,  D.  C. 


DELAWARE  VILLAGE  SITES. 
F  the  aboriginal  village  sites  on  the  coast 
of  Delaware  it  may  be  said  that  they 
are  exceptionally  numerous.  Indeed 
there  is  scarcely  a  spit  of  elevated 
sand  along  the  bay  and  sea  coast  of  the  State, 
from  New  Castle  to  Indian  River,  whereon  cannot 
be  found  traces  of  a  prehistoric  occupation.  These 
were  the  fishing  stations  of  the  Delawares  or  Len- 
ni-Lenape,  and  while  many  of  them  are  without 
any  special  antiquarian  value,  there  are  several  that 
well  deserve  investigation  and  study;  notably  one 
on  the  sand  flats  which  separate  the  quaint  old  pilot 
town  of  Lewes1  from  Delaware  Bay;  another  at 
Long  Neck  Branch  near  Cape  Henlopen,  and  a 
third  and  the  most  interesting  at  Rehoboth  on  the 
sea  about  five  miles  south  of  the  cape. 

Regarding  these  settlements  there  is  no  obtain 
able  data  save  some  incidental  references  of  the 
Swedish  historian  Acrelius,2  whence  we  learn  that 
in  April,  1638,  the  good  ship  of  war  "Key  of 
Kalmar "  entered  the  mouth  of  Delaware  Bay 

1  Rau,   "  Prehistoric  Fishing   in   Europe   and   North  America," 
"  Smithsonian  Contributions  to  Knowledge,"  1884. 

2  Israil  Acrelius,  clergyman,  born  in  Osterater,  Sweden,  Decem 
ber  25,    1714.     Ordained   in   1742,   came   to  America  to  preside 
over  the  Swedish  clergy  in  New  Sweden.     Author  of  "  Colonies 
in  America,"   published   in    1759,    and   "Articles   on   America." 
Died  April  25,  1800. 

'9 


20  Aboriginal  Fishing  Stations. 

bearing  the  first  colony  of  Swedish  settlers  to  the 
New  World  under  the  leadership  of  Peter  Men- 
ewee.  This  little  band  of  adventurers  made  a 
landing  on  the  west  side  of  the  bay  at  what  was 
then  supposed  to  be  the  mouth  of  an  estuary,  but 
which  was  really  a  small  inlet  near  the  present 
town  of  Lewes. 

A  map  in  the  Swedish  Archives  prepared  by 
Peter  Lindstrom,  who  accompanied  the  expedition 
as  civil  engineer,  delineates  this  sheet  of  water,  to 
which  the  Swedes  gave  the  name  of  Blumerkiln  or 
Flower  River.  No  such  stream  exists  at  the 
present  day,  but  an  examination  of  the  ground  de 
scribed  on  the  map  shows  the  bed  of  a  dried  up 
inlet.  The  same  expedition  bought  a  strip  of  land 
from  the  Indians  along  Delware  Bay  and  river 
covering  the  distance  between  Cape  Henlopen  and 
the  falls  at  Trenton.  That  the  natives  who  were 
a  party  to  this  purchase  were  an  important  com 
munity  would  seem  a  natural  inference,  as  had  this 
not  been  the  case  it  is  hardly  probable  the  Swedes 
would  have  acquired  title  to  the  territory. 

Following  their  arrival  the  Indians  abandoned 
their  sea  coast  fishing  stations,  leaving  in  their  wake 
heaps  of  discarded  shells  that  were  once  a  striking 
feature  of  the  landscape. 

As  I  first  saw  those  at  Lewes,  forty-five  years 
ago,  from  the  deck  of  a  vessel  anchored  in  the  bay, 
they  stretched  along  the  strand  for  over  a  mile  in 
the  direction  of  Cape  Henlopen  and  were  there  en- 


Aboriginal  Fishing  Stations.  21 

veloped  in  the  great  sand  dune,  a  marvelous  fea 
ture  of  that  wild  and  picturesque  locality.1 

In  wandering  over  the  remains  at  Lewes  it  was 
extremely  interesting  to  be  able  to  follow  the  course 
and  boundaries  of  the  dried-up  inlet  which  were 
distinctly  outlined  by  the  refuse.  Midway  of  what 
was  its  widest  part,  on  a  plateau  elevated  above 
the  level  of  the  surrounding  flats,  the  decaying 
remnants  of  a  solitary  tree,  known  to  the  people 
thereabouts  as  the  sweet-berry  tree,  is  a  conspicuous 
object.  The  conformation  of  the  plateau  and  its 
elevation  indicate  that  it  was  once  an  island  around 
whose  outer  edge  there  are  still  vestiges  of  an  em 
bankment.  One  of  the  traditions  of  the  locality  is 
that  the  island  was  the  home  of  a  powerful  chief, 
and  the  quantity  of  shells  and  debris,  which  is 
greater  there  than  elsewhere  on  the  Lewes  sands, 
gives  a  certain  credence  to  the  story. 

After  looking  over  the  ground  I  determined  to 

1  Although  not  germane  to  the  subject,  this  phenomenal  moun 
tain  of  sand  deserves  a  few  words  en  passant.  It  first  becomes 
prominent  at  the  pitch  of  the  cape,  where  it  rises  to  a  height  of 
nearly  one  hundred  feet  and  extends  westward  along  the  shore 
of  the  bay  for  a  quarter  of  a  mile,  resembling  an  enormous  snow 
drift.  In  its  gradual  progress  inland  it  has  buried  a  forest  of 
pines,  whose  withered  tops  emerge  from  the  summit  in  a  long 
line.  On  a  clear  day  it  may  be  distinctly  seen  from  Cape  May 
on  the  Jersey  Shore. 

Through  some  mysterious  vagary  of  the  fierce  northeast  gales, 
of  comparatively  recent  years,  the  sand  blown  out  of  the  sea 
has  piled  itself  around  the  lighthouse  until  the  lantern  is  barely 
visible  above  the  level  of  the  dune.  The  light  was  built  by  the 
English  in  Queen  Anne's  reign  and  is  about  ninety  feet  high. 


22  Aboriginal  Fishing  Stations. 

make  an  excavation  near  the  sweet-berry  tree, 
where  I  exposed  three  flat  boulders  of  calcined  and 
discolored  sandstone,  which  from  their  relative 
positions  embedded  among  the  shells  and  embers 
I  recognized  as  hearth  stones.  Near  them  I  dis 
covered  a  small  polished  celt  of  black  jasper,  a  clay 
pipe  stem  and  a  rough,  egg-shaped  corn-mill  or 
metattee  of  conglomerate  rock,  twelve  inches  long 
and  eight  inches  in  diameter,  weighing  thirty 
pounds.  The  distinguishing  feature  of  this  and 
all  similar  implements  is  two  shallow  cup-shaped 
concavities  one  on  each  of  its  flat  sides  wherein 
the  corn  meal  was  mixed  and  prepared  for  baking. 
Hence  it  is  misleading  to  speak  of  these  stones  as 
exclusively  corn  mills  as  the  excavations  were  too 
shallow  and  the  capacity  too  meagre  to  admit  of 
convenient  or  economic  grinding.  For  this  pur 
pose  portable  hollowed-out  stumps  of  trees  or 
small  natural  rock  formations  were  employed  in 
situ,  of  the  capacity  of  at  least  half  a  bushel. 

Very  remarkable  stone  pestles  were  used  in  con 
junction  with  these  large  mortars,  astonishing  ex 
amples  of  primitive  stone  cutting.  Some  of  them 
exceed  two  feet  in  length,  apparently  hewn  from 
the  solid  rock,  symmetrically  proportioned,  and  in 
some  instances  ornamented  at  one  end  with  a  carved 
decoration. 

Respecting  these  corn  mills,  or  more  properly 
dough-boards,  previously  referred  to,  there  has 
been  considerable  speculation  as  to  the  reasons  for 
the  existence  of  two  excavations. 


Aboriginal  Fishing  Stations.  23 

It  has  been  suggested  that  in  selecting  a  stone, 
particularly  in  a  locality  where  they  do  not  natur 
ally  occur,  as  in  southern  Delaware,  one  would  be 
chosen  that  had  two  available  surfaces.  This 
would  appear  to  give  a  plausible  solution  of  the 
question,  but  is  altogether  untenable  when  applied 
to  objects  of  this  nature  from  any  of  the  Atlantic 
Coast  States.  A  very  fine  specimen  from  the 
neighborhood  of  New  Castle,  Delaware,  where 
once  flourished  a  considerable  settlement,  exempli 
fies  this  contention.  This  is  a  triangular-shaped 
slab  of  sandstone,  flat  on  both  sides,  sixteen  inches 
long,  eleven  inches  in  its  widest  part,  and  nine 
inches  high  and  weighs  seventy-eight  pounds.  On 
each  side  there  is  a  shallow  cup-shaped  depression 
less  than  an  inch  in  depth  and  six  inches  in  diam 
eter.  In  short,  the  shallow  concavities  are  iden 
tical  in  every  particular,  and  there  is  every  reason 
to  suppose  were  simultaneously  drilled.  Asso 
ciated  with  these  corn  mills  were  grinding  stones, 
one  of  which  was  afterwards  picked  up  where  the 
mill  I  have  just  described  was  found,  which  hap 
pened  to  be  an  unfrequented  spot  on  New  Castle 
Creek,  and  the  interesting  manner  of  its  discovery 
deserves  to  be  recorded. 

When  Mr.  H ,  of  New  Castle,  to  whom  I 

am  indebted  for  these  valuable  specimens,  sent  me 
the  mill,  I  mentioned  that  the  grinder  should  be 
somewhere  in  the  vicinity  and  if  search  were  made 
might  be  recovered.  Acting  upon  this  suggestion 


24  Aboriginal  Fishing  Stations. 

the  missing  stone  was  found  within  a  few  feet  of 
the  place  where  the  mill  had  rested  undisturbed 
for  two  centuries  or  more.  It  is  a  turtle-shaped 
cobble  just  large  enough  to  be  conveniently  grasped. 
The  under  surface,  which  is  almost  circular,  plainly 
shows  the  effect  that  attrition  would  produce  in  the 
process  of  grinding,  and  the  oval  or  top  part,  where 
it  has  been  covered  by  the  hand,  it  will  be  observed, 
is  worn  to  a  polish  as  well  as  artificially  stained  a 
deep  brown.  These  specimens  have  been  depos 
ited  in  the  Archaeological  Museum,  University  of 
Pennsylvania. 

LONG  NECK  BRANCH  FISHING  STATION. 
After  leaving  the  remains  at  Lewes  and  strolling 
along  the  shore  for  about  two  miles  to  the  south, 
we  reach  Cape  Henlopen,  which  marks  the  line 
dividing  the  waters  of  Delaware  Bay  from  the 
Atlantic.  A  mile  and  a  half  southwest  of  the  cape 
we  approach  another  fishing  station  which  may 
have  been  a  part  of  the  Lewes  village,  since  it  is 
only  separated  from  it  by  the  great  sand  dune.  A 
large  salt  meadow,  once  a  spacious  but  shallow 
inlet,  known  in  our  day  as  Long  Neck  Branch,  occu 
pies  the  northwestern  boundary.  In  the  years  suc 
ceeding  the  withdrawal  of  the  Indians,  this  inlet 
has  also  succumbed  to  the  enveloping  process  of 
the  dune  in  its  progress  inland,  until  it  has  been 
transformed  into  a  meadow  of  waving  grass  which 
may  now  be  safely  crossed  on  foot.  Here  the 


Aboriginal  Fishing  Stations.  25 

remains  are  less  extensive  than  at  Lewes,  but  are 
so  unusually  well  preserved  that  the  observer  nat 
urally  looks  about  him  for  a  cause.  The  spot  is 
a  desolate  one.  There  is  no  habitation  within  the 
range  of  the  eye  save  the  lighthouse  at  the  cape, 
barely  visible  above  the  apex  of  the  sand  mountain, 
which  has  enveloped  the  tower  from  its  base  to 
the  lantern.  Remoteness  from  the  haunts  of  men 
— the  relic  hunter  and  the  lime  burner — coupled 
with  the  protecting  foliage  of  a  pine  forest  which 
covers  a  large  part  of  the  deposit,  have  arrested 
disintegration.  It  was  easily  apparent  that  the 
mounds  had  not  been  disturbed  since  their  aban 
donment,  as  upon  the  removal  of  the  surface  sand 
the  cinders,  of  which  there  was  an  unusual  quan 
tity  entirely  free  from  extraneous  matter,  had  the 
fresh  appearance  of  recent  combustion.  The  shell- 
heaps  were  from  one  to  two  feet  high  and  five  to 
ten  feet  broad,  and  followed  the  shore  of  the 
dried-up  inlet  for  half  a  mile.  From  one  of  them, 
where  the  charcoal  was  especially  abundant,  I  raked 
out  from  among  the  embers  a  surprisingly  large 
amount  of  broken  pottery,  and  although  it  repre 
sented  perhaps  a  half  dozen  pots,  I  was  unable  to 
restore  from  the  fragments  anything  approaching  a 
perfect  specimen.  A  comparison  with  other  frag 
ments  from  the  Delaware  coast  showed  it  was  char 
acteristic  earthenware  of  the  locality,,  curiously 
fragile  and  delicate  and  blackened  with  smoke. 
I  made  other  excavations  where  the  size  and  con- 


26  Aboriginal  Fishing  Stations. 

dition  of  the  mounds  seemed  to  invite  investigation 
without  discovering  anything  beyond  the  usual 
yield  of  the  village  rubbish  heap. 

In  walking  through  the  glades  a  broad  and  well- 
defined  trail  led  from  the  shell-heaps  to  a  consider 
able  pond  of  fresh  water  where  the  camp  dwellers 
obtained  their  supply. 

REHOBOTH  VILLAGE  SITE. 

The  third  in  this  series  of  notable  prehistoric 
village  sites  is  situated  on  ground  now  occupied  by 
Rehoboth  Beach,  a  watering  place  on  the  Delaware 
coast  four  miles  south  of  Cape  Henlopen  and  about 
nineteen  miles  from  Cape  May,  which  lies  diag 
onally  across  the  bay  on  the  New  Jersey  shore. 

I  know  of  no  village  site  where  the  evidences 
are  so  many  and  so  well  preserved,  but  in  a  little 
while  every  trace  of  its  aboriginal  association  will 
have  disappeared,  as  embryo  streets  traverse  its 
domain  in  every  direction  and  hotels  and  cottages 
are  fast  occupying  ground  where  once  flourished 
perhaps  one  of  the  most  important  Indian  settle 
ments  on  the  coast. 

The  remains  are  about  five  hundred  feet  from 
the  sea  which  they  parallel  for  about  a  mile,  and 
notwithstanding  their  dangerous  proximity  have 
suffered  little  from  abnormal  tides  by  reason  of  a 
natural  barrier  of  protecting  dunes,  ten  to  twelve 
feet  in  height,  which  extend  along  the  beach  from 
Rehoboth  almost  to  Henlopen. 


Aboriginal  Fishing  Stations.  27 

A  ridge  of  intersecting  sand  hills  divides  the 
encampment  into  about  equal  parts,  and  as  the 
southern  half  is  on  a  higher  plane,  the  two  may  be 
called  an  upper  and  lower  encampment.  On  its 
southern  boundary  is  Rehoboth  Bay,  a  charming 
bit  of  water,  once  the  habitat  of  clams  and  oysters 
and  within  fifty  years  famous  as  the  feeding  ground 
of  immense  flocks  of  geese  and  ducks  in  their 
southern  flight. 

These  doubtless  were  also  the  conditions  that 
prevailed  during  the  life  of  the  encampment.  All 
this  is  now  changed.  Since  the  spot  has  become  ac 
cessible  to  sportsmen  the  wild  fowl  have  gradually 
disappeared,  and  this  must  also  be  said  of  the  mol- 
lusks ;  and  the  bay,  no  longer  navigable,  is  a  shallow 
expense  of  water  given  over  to  myriads  of  hard 
and  shedder  crabs  and  fast  yielding  to  subsidence. 

Skirting  a  portion  of  the  western  boundary  of 
the  encampment,  we  behold  one  of  those  phenom 
enal  freaks  of  nature  not  often  met  with  on  our 
coast,  namely,  three  lakes  whose  waters  are  as 
fresh  and  clear  as  any  in  our  northern  latitudes, 
although  within  a  few  feet  of  the  salt  sea,  and 
abundantly  supplied  with  perch.  The  largest 
covers  some  fifty  acres  and  has  a  mean  depth  of 
five  feet,  the  quantity  of  water  in  each  remaining 
the  same  in  all  seasons,  exhaustion  from  evapora 
tion  being  supplied  by  hidden  springs. 

It  will  thus  be  seen  that  in  selecting  Rehoboth 
the  Indian  displayed  a  keen  appreciation  of  its  un- 


28  Aboriginal  Fishing  Stations. 

surpassed  natural  advantages.  It  was  an  ideal 
spot  for  an  encampment;  every  requirement  that 
appealed  to  his  savage  nature  centered  in  the  local 
ity.  Added  to  a  delightful  mean  temperature 
were  fish,  clams,  oysters  and  crabs  in  abundance; 
large  and  small  game  roamed  the  adjacent  forest, 
and  the  open  spaces  or  windrows  were  adapted 
then  as  now  for  raising  the  highly  esteemed  and 
almost  venerated  maize. 

The  character  of  the  ground  on  which  a  large 
part  of  the  town  stood  is  in  itself  a  revelation. 
Much  of  it  has  a  level,  compact  and  apparently 
graded  surface,  entirely  destitute  of  vegetation, 
not  alone  the  result  of  nature's  handiwork,  but  in 
great  part  due  to  the  tread  of  successive  genera 
tions;  a  conclusion  that  must  appeal  to  the  most 
casual  observer,  nor  can  he  fail  to  notice  the  soil 
immediately  beyond  the  limits  of  the  encampment 
where  it  is  loose  and  deep  and  covered  with  a 
luxuriant  growth  of  heather. 

Small  conical  elevations,  composed  of  clam, 
oyster  and  mussel  shells,  broken  pottery  and  dis 
membered  hearth  stones,  the  embers  and  refuse  of 
aboriginal  camp  fires  are  to  be  seen  everywhere. 
These  vary  in  size  as  they  have  been  protected  from 
the  elements.  The  well  sheltered  appear  to  have 
retained  much  of  their  original  shape;  many  have 
partially  succumbed  to  the  leveling  process  of 
wind  and  rain,  and  there  are  still  others  in  the 
open  that  have  been  razed  to  the  ground. 


Aboriginal  Fishing  Stations.  29 

There  are  no  large  shell-mounds  at  Rehoboth 
and  presumably  never  have  been,  as  the  number 
and  position  of  those  extant  preclude  such  a  con 
clusion. 

From  one  of  the  mounds  I  gathered  some  bones 
which  were  identified  by  Professor  Joseph  Leidy, 
to  whom  I  submitted  them,  as  those  of  the  deer 
and  dog  and  were  split  as  well  as  calcined,  the 
condition  in  which  they  are  invariably  found.  It 
was  interesting  to  discover  that  in  every  stone 
picked  up  within  the  encampment  one  could  trace 
the  fragments  of  an  implement ;  and  here  it  should 
be  remembered  that  stones  are  not  an  indigenous 
product  of  this  part  of  Delaware,  of  which  it  has 
been  said  in  a  spirit  of  irony  that  none  are  to  be 
found  in  Sussex  County,  where  the  remains  are 
situated,  larger  than  an  ordinary  pebble.  On  ac 
count  of  this  dearth  of  material  the  stone  age  of 
Delaware  has  an  interest  exclusively  its  own. 

Adjoining  the  shell  heaps,  where  naturally  the 
huts  of  the  native  once  stood,  I  found  more  than 
a  hundred  stone  specimens,  consisting  of  arrow 
and  spear  heads,  shucking  stones,  corn  mills  or 
dough-boards,  flaking  hammers  and  celts.  One 
of  the  latter  is  an  unusually  fine  specimen  of  black 
jasper,  seven  inches  long,  with  a  cutting  edge  three 
inches  wide,  whence  its  lines  taper  gracefully  back 
to  a  blunt  point  an  inch  in  diameter.  A  large  and 
deep  finger  pit  on  the  flat  side  proved  that  it  was 
an  unhafted  implement. 


30  Aboriginal  Fishing  Stations. 

The  most  noteworthy  surface  find,  however,  was 
some  thirty  copper  beads  which  the  shifting  sands 
had  exposed.  These  were  made  of  strips  of  un- 
welded  virgin  copper  rolled  into  small  cylinders 
from  a  quarter  to  a  half  an  inch  in  length.  Had 
the  beads  been  of  brass  they  would  have  lost  much 
of  their  interesting  antiquarian  value,  as  in  early 
colonial  days  the  Indians  obtained  brass  from  the 
whites,  which  they  highly  prized  for  making  orna 
ments. 


VILLAGES  ON  THE  EASTERN  SHORE  OF 

MARYLAND. 

ROSSING  the  peninsula  in  a  direct  line 
from  Rehoboth  we  enter  that  fertile 
and  picturesque  part  of  Maryland 
which  stretches  along  the  Chesapeake 
to  the  Atlantic  known  as  the  "  Eastern  Shore." 
This  was  the  country  of  the  powerful  Nanticokes, 
and  wherever  a  stream  or  inlet  indents  the  shore 
line  the  remains  of  their  villages  will  be  found 
occupying  the  thickly  timbered  bluff  which  rises 
eighty  feet  above  the  waters  of  the  bay  and  gives 
the  shore  a  bold  and  striking  aspect. 

The  Nanticokes  were  first  mentioned  by  the 
adventurous  Captain  John  Smith,  who  encountered 
them  in  1608  in  his  first  voyage  up  the  Chesa 
peake.  He  describes  them  as  living  in  large  and 
flourishing  towns,  of  superior  intelligence,  and  en 
joying  a  high  order  of  aboriginal  civilization.  In 
1712,  or  a  little  over  a  century  later,  they  still 
numbered  some  five  hundred  people,  and  the  same 
year  records  the  death  of  their  last  "king,"  the 
famous  Wyniaco.  Rapid  disintegration  followed, 
as  in  1792  we  learn  from  a  letter  of  Mr.  Van 
Murray,1  addressed  to  the  Hon.  Thomas  Jefferson, 

1  At  the  request  of  Hon.  Thomas  Jefferson,  President  of  the 
United  States,  Mr.  William  Van  Murray,  of  Cambridge,  Md., 
prepared  a  vocabulary  of  the  Nanticoke  language  from  informa- 

31 


32  Aboriginal  Fishing  Stations. 

this  once  numerous  tribe  had  dwindled  by  death 
and  removal  to  a  mere  handful  of  nine  persons, 
who  were  quietly  lingering  until  final  disbandment 
among  the  ruins  of  one  of  their  ancient  towns  near 
Cambridge,  Maryland,  called  Locust  Neck,  on 
Goose  Creek,  a  branch  of  the  Choptank  River. 
At  the  date  of  the  letter  what  was  left  of  the  town 
consisted  of  two  "modern"  frame  buildings  and 
four  genuine  wigwams  thatched  over  with  the  bark 
of  the  cedar  and  very  old.  It  is  much  to  be  re 
gretted  that  drawings  were  not  made  of  these  un 
doubted  prehistoric  relics. 

In  1889  Dr.  J-  L.  Dawson,  of  Cambridge,  while 
engaged  in  archaeological  field  work  on  the  site  of 
this  old  Nanticoke  village,  discovered  among  the 
refuse  on  the  river  bank  several  feet  below  the  sur 
face  the  only  perfect  example  extant  of  a  prehis 
toric  paddle,  which  he  was  good  enough  to  send 
me.2  He  remarks  in  describing  it:  "I  am  not 
aware  that  other  paddles  have  been  found  in  this 
country  under  similar  circumstances." 

tion  furnished  by  survivors  of  the  tribe,  and  in  that  connection 
wrote  to  Mr.  Jefferson  under  date  of  September  18,  1792,  in  which 
he  refers  to  the  old  town  of  Locust  Neck,  where  there  still  lived 
Whie-m-quaque,  or  Mulberry  Tree,  widow  of  the  "  Colonel," 
the  last  chief.  Mrs.  Mulberry  was  then  a  very  old  woman,  but 
retained  all  her  faculties,  which  enabled  her  to  relate  many  inter 
esting  reminiscences  of  her  people.  The  vocabulary  of  the 
Nanticoke  dialect  referred  to  is  in  the  collection  of  the  American 
Philosophical  Society. 

2  Dr.  Charles  Rau  figures  one  in  his  "  Prehistoric  Fishing  in 
Europe  and  America,"  which  was  found  in  a  fragmentary  con 
dition  in  the  mud  of  a  creek  on  Long  Island. 


Aboriginal  Fishing  Stations.  33 

The  Maryland  paddle  was  found  protruding 
from  the  shell  bank,  imbedded  in  its  moist  debris, 
to  which,  together  with  the  fact  that  it  was  cut 
from  indigenous  live  oak,  it  owes  its  preserva 
tion.  It  is  rough  and  apparently  unfinished,  as 
if  it  had  been  lost  ere  the  final  touches  had  been 
bestowed  upon  it;  and  what  lends  color  to  this 
belief  is  that  its  surface  is  charred  and  cqvered 
with  incisions,  such  as  a  stone  gouge  would  make, 
thus  showing  the  means  employed  in  shaping  it. 
It  measures  four  feet  two  inches  over  all,  of  which 
the  blade  is  ten  inches  long  and  four  inches  in  its 
widest  part,  but  differs  from  that  of  the  conven 
tional  paddle,  being  rather  long  and  narrow  and 
terminating  in  a  blunt  point.  While  one  side  of 
the  blade  is  oval  the  other  is  roughly  worked  flat, 
as  if  that  side  were  meant  to  be  presented  to  the 
water.  About  midway  of  its  length  are  two  small 
perfectly  drilled  holes,  but  for  what  purpose  they 
were  made  is  not  clear.  Although  the  paddle 
suffered  some  slight  mutilation  at  the  time  of  its 
discovery,  it  may  be  said  to  be  perfect,  save  the 
encroachments  of  dry  rot.  It  has  also  that  dead- 
gray  color  peculiar  to  wood  which  has  been  long 
buried  in  the  water.1 

1This  is  one  of  perhaps  less  than  half  a  dozen  prehistoric 
objects  of  wood  of  American  origin  that  has  not  succumbed  to 
inevitable  decay,  and  we  may  not  hope  to  add  many  others  to 
the  number. 

Those  that  have  been  recovered  are  from  swamps,  submerged 
forest  lands,  ancient  village  sites  and  shell-heaps,  where  the  con- 


34  Aboriginal  Fishing  Stations. 

STILL  POND  CREEK  VILLAGE. 
If,  as  I  have  said,  we  may  with  some  degree  of 
accuracy  estimate  the  age  of  an  abandoned  village 
from  the  extent  of  the  refuse,  it  would  be  within 
the  bounds  of  conservatism  to  credit  the  remains 
of  the  ancient  town  on  the  south  bank  of  Still  Pond 
Creek,  Eastern  Shore  of  Maryland,  with  at  least 
a  thousand  years. 

ditions  have  favored  their  preservation,  and  are  mostly  rude  and 
unimportant. 

The  National  Museum  at  Washington  contains  a  curious  im 
plement  taken  from  a  shell  deposit  on  the  coast  of  Florida,  made 
of  a  conch  shell  pierced  by  a  wooden  handle.  When  found,  the 
latter  hung  loosely  in  its  decaying  socket,  but  all  traces  of  the 
method  by  which  it  had  been  secured  had  disappeared.  In  the 
absence  of  better  information,  this  specimen  is  called  a  "  club," 
but  appears  better  adapted  for  use  as  a  water  dipper. 

In  1889  I  examined  a  unique  and  very  beautiful  example  of 
aboriginal  wood  carving  in  the  possession  of  the  Public  Library 
at  Thomasville,  Georgia.  This  was  a  small  flat-bottomed  bowl, 
carved  out  of  a  solid  block  of  curled  black  walnut  of  great  den 
sity,  and  its  exact  as  well  as  graceful  lines  showed  no  defined 
warp  or  fissure.  The  sides  are  six  inches  long,  three  and  a  half 
inches  deep,  and  three  eighths  of  an  inch  thick,  with  slightly 
rounded  corners,  a  polished  surface  and  carefully  excavated 
interior.  In  design  and  finish  it  would  not  discredit  the  per 
formance  of  an  experienced  wood  carver  with  every  modern 
appliance  for  carving  at  his  command,  so  accurate  and  faultless 
are  the  measurements.  Two  diminutive  ears,  too  small  to  be  of 
use,  decorate  the  rim  on  opposite  sides,  the  counterpart  of  those 
frequently  seen  on  aboriginal  earthenware.  This  peculiarity 
would  have  established  its  identity  had  there  been  no  other  way 
of  doing  so.  It  was  found  immersed  in  water  at  a  depth  of  six 
or  seven  feet  below  the  surface  by  some  workmen  engaged  in 
sinking  a  well,  and  justifies  a  claim  to  great  antiquity. 


Aboriginal  Fishing  Stations.  35 

The  creek,  which  empties  into  the  Chesapeake 
about  sixteen  miles  north  of  Cambridge  as  the 
crow  flies,  gets  its  name  from  the  resemblance  to 
a  pond  of  that  part  near  its  mouth  which,  from 
an  insignificant  stream,  broadens  into  a  sheet  of 
water  almost  a  mile  in  width  with  no  visible  outlet. 

Unlike  the  fishing  stations  on  the  exposed  sea 
coast,  this  was  the  permanent  seat  of  a  large  tribal 
community,  and  as  we  are  in  the  land  of  the  Nanti- 
cokes  we  may  reasonably  suppose  it  to  have  been 
one  of  the  towns  mentioned  by  Captain  Smith. 

To  the  accustomed  eye  of  the  archaeological 
field-worker  it  presented  conditions  that  were  unus 
ually  attractive.  Situated  on  private  property,  a 
mile  or  more  from  any  public  highway,  with  a  con 
siderable  portion  covered  with  a  forest  of  prim 
eval  pines  and  liveoaks,  we  are  led  to  believe  that 
here,  at  least,  the  ground  had  changed  little  if  any 
since  the  Indian  occupation. 

Save  here  and  there  an  outcropping  of  shells, 
there  was  no  surface  indication  that  this  was  once 
a  vast  encampment,  but  upon  the  removal  anywhere 
among  the  timber  of  the  top  layer  of  moss  and 
several  inches  of  leaf  mold  the  shells  and  debris 
are  exposed. 

The  remains  also  follow  the  windings  of  the 
creek  for  a  mile  from  its  mouth,  and  if  approached 
by  water  are  visible  underlying  the  top  soil  of  the 
bluff  whence  detached  masses  of  shells  have  rolled 
to  the  water's  edge.  Indeed,  the  magnitude  of 


36  Aboriginal  Fishing  Stations. 

the  remains  exceed  in  area  anything  I  have  seen 
north  of  Florida;  so  great  as  to  suggest,  as  a 
profitable  financial  venture,  the  erection  of  kilns  at 
the  head  of  the  creek  for  burning  the  shells  for  the 
lime.  At  the  time  of  my  visit  the  lime  burner  had 
collected  for  that  purpose  in  a  nearby  ravine  shells 
roughly  estimated  at  over  two  hundred  tons,  and 
yet,  notwithstanding  this  drain  on  the  shell-heaps, 
which  began  many  years  before  the  Civil  War  and 
still  goes  on  with  an  occasional  interregnum,  the 
visible  supply  warrants  the  continuance^  of  this  in 
dustry  for  a  long  time  to  come. 

The  shells  appear  to  be  exclusively  those  of  the 
common  oyster,  presumably  from  local  beds  or 
those  easily  accessible,  but  long  since  exhausted. 

That  the  Indian  was  a  great  fisherman  we  have 
every  evidence,  but  he  was  not  a  sailor,  hence  his 
disinclination  to  venture  in  his  inadequate  dugout 
as  far  as  the  sea,  the  habitat  of  the  clam,  thus  ex 
plaining  the  absence  of  that  mollusk. 

The  old  town  may  be  reached  by  water  as  well 
as  on  the  land  side,  but  as  unfortunately  there  was 
no  "  Friendly  Inn  "  for  the  entertainment  of  the 
wayfarer  within  five  miles  of  Still  Pond,  and 
although  I  made  several  visits,  the  time  at  my  com 
mand  was  necessarily  brief,  restricting  my  obser 
vations  to  a  general  survey  of  its  extensive  area 
and  salient  antiquarian  features,  without  permit 
ting  excavations.  This  was  disappointing,  as  only 
a  short  time  before  our  visits  a  negro,  in  ploughing 


PLATE  IV.     COPPER  SPEAR  HEAD 

FROM   INDIAN   GRAVE: 

STILL  POND,  MARYLAND 


Aboriginal  Fishing  Stations.  37 

in  a  field  adjoining  the  shell-mounds,  turned  up  an 
Indian  grave,  one  perhaps  of  many  others  in  the 
same  vicinity  had  search  been  made.  The  fragile 
contents  were  destroyed  in  the  impact,  but  two 
metallic  objects  attracted  the  attention  of  the 
ploughman,  which  proved  to  be  implements  of 
copper. 

Apart  from  the  interest  with  which  the  latter 
are  regarded  on  account  of  their  rarity  and  the 
mystery  surrounding  their  fabrication,  they  possess 
an  additional  attraction  when  the  virgin  copper  is 
foreign  to  the  locality  where  they  are  found,  as  in 
the  case  of  the  implements  in  question. 

One  is  a  hoe  blade  of  the  conventional  type, 
well  shaped  and  very  heavy,  seven  inches  in  length, 
with  a  semicircular  edge  six  inches  wide.  The 
other  is  a  spear  head  of  absorbing  interest,  and 
although  it  has  no  counterpart,  so  far  as  known, 
among  prehistoric  copper  objects  and  quite  startling 
in  its  strong  resemblance  to  the  European  type,  is 
without  doubt  a  work  of  native  industry. 

As  shown  in  the  engraving  a  flange  extends  over 
the  entire  length  of  the  blade,  forming  a  double- 
cutting  edge,  and  terminating  at  the  hilt  in  a  shank 
marked  with  deep  clear-cut  notches  for  the  purpose 
of  securing  it  to  a  shaft.  The  point  and  upper 
portion  are  corroded  and  without  temper,  while 
the  lower  half  apparently  has  this  quality  and  re 
tains  its  original  polish.  In  an  effort  to  restore  the 
temper  the  apothecary  at  Still  Pond  destroyed  the 


38  Aboriginal  Fishing  Stations. 

symmetry  of  one  of  its  edges.  It  is  twelve  inches 
long  and  one  and  one  quarter  inches  in  the  widest 
part. 

As  there  was  no  conclusive  testimony  to  the  con 
trary  it  had  always  been  accepted  as  true  that  the 
American  aborigine  hammered  the  virgin  metal 
into  shape  when  cold.  In  this  spear  head,  how 
ever,  we  have  a  specimen  that  shows  not  only  famil 
iarity  with  smelting,  but  what  is  of  far  more  in 
terest,  with  the  secret  of  tempering. 

Through  the  courtesy  of  the  gentleman  on  whose 
plantation  the  Still  Pond  encampment  is  situated, 
I  was  permitted  to  take  this  specimen  to  Philadel 
phia  where  those  best  qualified  to  speak  pronounced 
it  perhaps  the  most  remarkable  example  of  abor 
iginal  American  copper  work  extant.  The  Smith 
sonian  Institution  and  the  Archaeological  Museum 
of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania  were  both  unsuc 
cessful  in  their  endeavors  to  purchase  it  for  their 
collections. 

A  path  from  the  old  town  to  the  foot  of  the 
bluff  leads  to  a  spring  of  great  volume  and  purity, 
known  to  this  day  as  "  Indian  Spring,"  which 
gushes  from  the  gravel  bank  a  few  feet  from  the 
ground,  and  after  forming  a  considerable  pool  at 
the  base  flows  into  the  creek.  It  was  not  far  from 
here  that  we  picked  up  an  ancient  anchor  stone  of 
steatite,  which,  through  some  strange  coincidence, 
was  found  attached  to  the  line  of  a  modern  skiff. 


POTTERY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  ATLANTIC  STATES. 

N  closing  this  brief  account  of  perhaps 
the  most  characteristic  of  the  village 
sites  on  the  sea  coast  of  the  Middle 
States,  it  would  be  incomplete  with 
out  a  comparative  description  of  the  indigenous 
pottery;  and  in  approaching  this  subject  we  must 
remember  that  as  we  have  neither  architecture  nor 
sculpture  to  aid  us,  our  knowledge  of  aboriginal 
culture  within  the  domain  of  the  United  States 
must  in  great  part  be  obtained  from  a  study  of  this 
primitive  industry. 

In  contemplating  the  custom  which  prevailed 
among  all  primitive  people,  and  still  obtains  in 
many  instances,  of  depositing  with  their  dead  ar 
ticles  of  food  in  earthenware  containers,  the  conclu 
sion  is  obvious  that  the  pottery  thus  dedicated  was 
superior  to  that  in  ordinary  domestic  use.  As  a 
matter  of  course  this  was  not  the  case  in  the  first 
instance,  but  with  the  development  of  the  art,  ves 
sels  for  mortuary  purposes  became  a  specially  pre 
pared  type  excelling  in  design  and  decoration,  with 
which  the  museums  of  the  world  have  been  en 
riched  with  thousands  of  examples. 

This  burial  rite  was  scrupulously  observed  by 
the  North  American  aborigine.  It  had  for  its 
purpose  the  propitiation  of  the  spirits  on  behalf 

39 


40  Aboriginal  Fishing  Stations. 

of  the  departed  upon  his  entrance  into  the  realms 
of  the  Happy  Hunting  Grounds.  Hence  there  is 
no  grave  without  its  pottery,  and  while  the  mound 
builders  were  lavish  in  the  observance  of  this  cus 
tom,  an  Indian  tomb  east  of  the  Alleghanies  rarely 
contains  more  than  a  single  vase. 

As  in  every  department  of  aboriginal  domestic 
labor  the  potters  were  women,  to  whom  must  be 
credited  the  authorship  not  only  of  the  crude  pot 
tery  of  our  eastern  coast  but  the  beautiful  spec 
imens  from  the  Mississippi  Valley.  As  the  latter 
are  familiar  to  every  student  of  American  an 
tiquities  it  is  only  necessary  to  say  by  way  of  com 
parison  that  they  rank  with  the  best  efforts  of  the 
ancient  Mayas  of  Central  America.  Indeed,  in 
the  light  of  recent  researches,  we  are  irresistibly 
led  to  believe  that  the  mysterious  people  who  in 
habited  the  fertile  Mississippi  Valley  were  the  de 
generate  descendants  of  the  Mayas  and  reproduced 
their  ceramic  forms.  Hence  the  pottery  from  the 
western  mounds  includes  an  almost  endless  variety 
of  shapes,  intricate  and  graceful  and  sometimes 
grotesque,  with  many  imitations  of  the  human 
form,  as  well  as  birds,  animals  and  reptiles.  Pig 
ments  were  employed  in  their  decoration,  they  ex 
hibit  a  high  order  of  mechanical  ability  and  the 
designs  were  invariably  finished  with  a  flat  base — 
the  natural  development  of  the  potter's  art. 

From  every  point  of  view  the  earthenware  from 
the  mounds  is  so  incomparably  better  than  that 


PLATE  V.     INDIAN   POT  FROM    DEERFIELD,   MASSACHUSETTS,  41A   INCHES  HIGH. 


PLATE  VI.     INDIAN   POT  FROM   BOLTON,  VERMONT,   11    INCHES  HIGH. 


Aboriginal  Fishing  Stations.  41 

found  east  of  the  Alleghanies  as  to  lead  the  expert 
to  claim  for  the  latter,  if  not  greater  antiquity,  at 
least  a  different  origin.  The  character  of  the  ma 
terials  of  the  Atlantic  Coast  pottery,  the  workman 
ship,  the  monotony  of  the  designs  and  the  crude 
attempt  at  decoration,  all  point  to  this  conclusion. 
Briefly  it  occupies  an  interesting  nich  of  its  own. 

However,  it  is  hardly  within  the  scope  of  this 
article  to  enter  into  a  discussion,  or  to  endeavor  to 
establish  a  claim  to  priority  for  the  pottery  of  the 
Eastern  States.  Indeed,  such  an  attempt  must 
necessarily  fail  in  view  of  the  small  number  of 
perfect  specimens  that  have  been  recovered.  It 
may  surprise  the  uninformed  to  learn  that  the  en 
tire  number  will  not  exceed  twenty,  and  of  these 
one  half  as  well  as  the  most  interesting  are  from 
graves  and  rock  tombs  in  Pennsylvania.  Compare 
this  surprisingly  small  number  with  the  thousands 
that  have  been  exhumed  without  a  fracture  from 
the  ancient  tumuli  west  of  the  Alleghanies. 

Incredible  as  it  may  sound  I  am  told  that  the  Na 
tional  Museum  at  Washington,  which  contains  the 
most  complete  collection  of  American  pottery  in 
the  world,  within  two  years  did  not  possess  a  single 
perfect  specimen  from  the  Eastern  and  Middle 
States.  It  had,  however,  three  colored  plaster 
casts  deposited  by  Professor  Hitchcock,  of  Am- 
herst,  Mass.,  of  clay  vessels  that  were  found  in 
New  England.  One  of  them  is  figured  in  Vol.  5, 
page  14,  of  the  American  Naturalist,  and  this  pot, 


42  Aboriginal  Fishing  Stations. 

together  with  the  largest  of  the  three,  is  in  the  col 
lection  of  the  University  of  Vermont  at  Burlington, 
and  the  original  of  the  third  cast  is  in  the  posses 
sion  of  Mr.  George  Sheldon,  of  Deersfield,  Mass., 
who  found  it  in  the  lot  adjoining  his  home.  "  I 
know  of  but  one  other  vessel  of  this  nature,"  says 
Professor  Hitchcock,  "  ever  found  whole  in  New 
England.  This  is  in  the  hands  of  Dr.  S.  A.  Green, 
of  Boston." 

I  have  ascertained  that  New  Jersey  has  contrib 
uted  but  one  unbroken  vessel  to  the  group,  and 
thus  far  neither  Delaware  nor  Maryland  are  rep 
resented  other  than  by  fragments. 

In  1890  I  was  shown  the  convex  base  of  a  pot 
as  large  as  a  common  earthenware  pie  plate  that 
was  thrown  out  of  an  Indian  grave  at  Felton,  Del 
aware,  and  rescued  from  complete  oblivion  by  the 
farmer's  wife  who  saw  in  it  a  convenient  soap  dish. 

In  walking  over  the  spot  where  it  had  been  found 
a  few  weeks  afterwards  I  picked  up  the  remaining 
fragments.  The  clay  was  nearly  an  inch  thick, 
very  rough  and  without  embellishment,  and  when 
intact  the  bowl  had  a  capacity  of  about  half  a 
gallon.  As  a  general  thing,  however,  the  earthen 
ware  of  New  Jersey,  Delaware  and  Maryland  was 
made  to  contain  hardly  more  than  a  quart. 

Of  the  designs  of  these  vessels  it  may  be  said 
they  adhere  undeviatingly  to  the  vegetable  form 
and  like  the  gourd  terminate  in  a  convex  base 
which  requires  support  when  resting  upon  the  earth. 


Aboriginal  Fishing  Stations.  43 

I  am  not  aware  of  the  existence  of  a  single  spec 
imen  from  any  part  of  the  Atlantic  Coast  with  a 
flat  bottom,  and  where  this  feature  occurs  in  pot 
tery  from  Gulf  it  must  be  attributed  to  some  wan 
dering  family  of  Maya  ancestry. 

In  treating  the  subject  of  decoration  it  is  nec 
essary  first  to  describe  the  larger  vessels,  evidently 
intended  to  withstand  rough  handling,  of  which  the 
clay  is  thick — from  a  half  to  one  inch — and  the 
materials  coarse.  Physically  this  class  resembles 
our  modern  earthenware,  but  the  clay  is  less  co 
hesive  as  if  insufficiently  baked  and  is  destitute  of 
ornamentation.  In  the  smaller  pots,  however,  we 
cannot  fail  to  notice  a  delicacy  that  pertains  to 
them  alone.  In  these  the  decorations  vary  but  are 
of  the  simplest  description,  consisting  in  some  cases 
of  two  diminutive  ears,  and  in  others  of  finger  nail 
impressions  and  incised  parallel  lines  encircling  the 
rim.  Photography  has  demonstrated  that  the  shal 
low  tracings  which  cover  the  exterior  of  nearly  all 
fragments  of  our  eastern  pottery,  and  until  re 
cently  regarded  as  a  decoration,  were  simply  those 
made  on  the  soft  clay  by  a  species  of  coarsely 
woven  vegetable  fibre  in  which  the  vessel  was  en 
closed  during  the  early  stages  of  firing  and  pre 
vented  disintegration.  Although  some  of  the  ves 
sels  were  artificially  colored  a  bright  red  as  if  to  con 
ceal  the  inequalities  of  the  clay,  there  is  no  record  of 
the  existence  within  the  territory  we  are  considering 
of  a  pot  ornamented  with  a  colored  design  of  any 


44  Aboriginal  Fishing  Stations. 

kind  and  the  art  of  glazing  was  unknown.  Nor 
are  there  specimens  of  bottle-shaped  or  long-necked 
vases  so  frequently  met  with  among  the  mound 
builders  and  in  same  parts  of  the  South;  and  no 
attempt  was  made  to  copy  the  human  or  any  other 
form  of  life.  The  nearest  approach  thereto  are 
little  grotesque  human  heads  or  masks  stuck  on  the 
outside  of  the  vessel  below  the  rim.  A  number 
of  fragments  thus  decorated  were  collected  in  the 
State  of  New  York  by  Frank  Hamilton  Gushing 
and  presented  to  the  National  Museum  at  Wash 
ington,  and  it  will  be  observed  that  a  perfect  vase 
similarly  ornamented  is  among  those  discovered  in 
Pennsylvania.1 

It  has  been  reserved  for  the  latter  State  to  fur 
nish  the  most  characteristic  examples  from  the 
eastern  coast,  the  majority  of  which  were  recov 
ered  from  graves  and  rock  tombs  in  Wyoming 
Valley  and  the  adjacent  Blue  Ridge  Mountains, 
and  although  they  were  all  found  within  a  radius 
of  forty  miles,  there  are  no  two  identical  in  shape, 
and  each  has  a  different  decoration.  Take  for 
example  the  Tioga  group  which  has  the  distinct 
merit  of  variety.  They  were  found  in  Tioga 

1  In  the  spring  of  1883  the  Wyoming  Historical  and  Geological 
Society  instituted  some  researches  on  the  Susquehanna  River 
near  Wilkes-Barre,  Pa.,  which  resulted  in  the  discovery  of  a 
number  of  Indian  graves,  and  from  these  were  recovered  the 
valuable  specimens  of  pottery  portrayed  in  the  engraving.  See 
"  Proceedings  and  Collections  of  the  Wyoming  Historical  and 
Geological  Society,"  Vol.  2,  Part  i,  page  55. 


Aboriginal  Fishing  Stations.  45 

Township,  Luzerne  County,  in  three  adjoining 
graves.  On  account  of  certain  peculiarities  of 
form  I  call  them  the  Pennsylvania  variety,  and 
while  they  all  follow  the  lines  of  the  gourd,  the 
monotony  of  this  shape  is  relieved  by  a  high  deco 
rated  rim  with  flaring  lips.  They  were  made  to 
contain  from  a  half  to  one  gallon  and  were  there 
fore  much  larger  as  well  as  the  most  pleasing  of 
the  mortuary  earthenware  of  the  eastern  coast. 

Steatite  or  pot-stone  vessels  were  also  employed 
to  some  extent  by  the  natives  who  lived  in  the 
neighborhood  of  the  Virginia  and  Pennsylvania 
deposits  of  that  mineral,  and  a  few  specimens  nat 
urally  drifted  into  the  contiguous  States.  Not 
withstanding  the  susceptibility  of  the  material  and 
the  strength  and  endurance  of  the  vessels,  little 
attention  was  given  to  their  decoration,  and  as  a 
class  they  were  shallow,  rough  hewn  and  clumsy. 

In  summing  up  the  difficulties  under  which  these 
ancient  potters  of  our  eastern  coast  prosecuted  their 
art,  we  cannot  but  express  our  astonishment  at  the 
general  excellence  of  their  work  and  the  patient 
industry  that  was  required  to  perfect  it,  unaided  by 
any  mechanical  appliance.  As  the  product  of  an 
untutored  savage  it  represents  not  only  his  earliest 
economic  impulse  but  his  first  attempt  at  decorative 
art,  and  as  he  lived  under  the  trees  what  more  nat 
ural  than  to  reproduce  in  his  rude  earthenware  the 
form  of  the  objects  he  saw  about  him,  namely,  the 
gourd,  the  pumpkin  and  the  melon? 


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